


Her Blood a Red Fire

by the_rck



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, The Chronicles of Chrestomanci - Diana Wynne Jones
Genre: Evil Plans, Gen, Revenge, Timeline What Timeline
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:49:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22964926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_rck/pseuds/the_rck
Summary: Her Master would smash her the moment he realized she was strong enough to threaten him. That was the way of the Sith.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 14
Collections: Love Me Some Crossovers, Writing Rainbow Red





	Her Blood a Red Fire

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Gammarad](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gammarad/gifts).



> I have no idea where this might fit in the broader Star Wars timeline, but I don't think that matters much. Gwendolen Chant would definitely want to be the Sith Master.
> 
> If a Darth Arkanith actually appears somewhere in canon, then I missed them in my quick pass through Wookieepedia. Please assume that this one isn't anyone from canon.

Gwendolen despised almost everyone. She couldn't think, off the top of her head, of anyone she didn't despise, but she distrusted absolutes. Most absolutes she'd run into had to do with her not being allowed to exert power over the universe around her.

And there probably was someone tolerable out there. Absence of evidence not being evidence of absence.

She despised Darth Arkanith, her Master, too. She couldn't help thinking of it every time she knelt before him.

He knew and found it amusing. "Affection would be a weakness, my Apprentice. You remember what happens to the weak."

She remembered, so she averted her gaze and braced herself for pain. If she fell to something as small as her Master's irritation, she wouldn't deserve her status as his Apprentice. She was closer, now, to understanding how to turn Force lightning without letting him realize she was doing it.

Gwendolen had always been an excellent actor. She was sure she could scream and spasm convincingly without sustaining the usual damage to her body. One day, very, very soon, she would destroy her Master. He wouldn't see it coming. 

Then, she'd return to her own world to smash everyone who had ever made her feel small. She wouldn't stay, of course. One world, even one whole series of worlds, was too small. She could craft an exquisite miniature of pain in a individual's life or on a single world, but being Sith meant access to much vaster canvases. Vaster canvases meant drawing more power even if the darkness was less pure and more diffuse.

She might keep Chrestomanci as a pet. The thought of that sustained her while her Master punished her for 'getting above yourself.' Chrestomanci had sneered at her exactly that way. He needed to see that he'd been wrong, that he'd made her more powerful and more terrible than he himself could ever hope to be.

Keeping Cat and his power as a resource to make herself stronger made sense, too. If she hit him hard enough, he'd give her anything. Most people would.

And it wasn't as if any of her homeworld's sorcerers, not even the nine-lived enchanters, were Jedi. They'd be vulnerable to the lesser manipulations of the Dark Side. The greatest weaknesses were always venial.

As she pulled herself upright again and bowed to her Master, Gwendolen considered how much Cat had given her and how easily. Her brother had been young and vulnerable, and he'd had so much power. All she'd needed to do was to connect the siphon early enough and to make sure that he needed her. 

The best thing about that was-- a thing she only realized much later-- was that Cat's power was separate enough not to be stolen or exhausted when what she had in her own self was. She could still feel that connection to Cat. He had blocked her from his power-- a betrayal she'd never forgive-- but if he ever dropped the block, she could draw on him again.

Her master wanted her isolated, but she thought that was more about keeping her politically and emotionally weak. "Detachment," he'd told her more than once, "is for Jedi." He never added the part that Gwendolen understood instinctively-- Attachment was vulnerability.

Her Master would smash her the moment he realized she was strong enough to threaten him. That was the way of the Sith. If she had Cat or, rather, many people as vulnerable as he used to be, she could scatter and conceal her real power. She could wait and gather it at the moment she most needed it.

Her Master would think that she was seeking minions to throw against him. He'd miss the fact that a few-- one in a hundred? One in a thousand? --vanished between one place and another. Children in stasis wouldn't draw that much attention. She didn't need them to suffer in order to sustain her, and it was suffering that usually powered the Sith.

And, if he did notice, Gwendolen had other plans. There'd be at least one attack that her Master failed to notice. Gwendolen would be the Master soon enough. Then, she could finally change her name. 'Darth Chant' was unattractive and too connected to her past. How was she supposed to intimidate anyone with a name like that?


End file.
